The mountain has a mind of its own. Sometimes people want nice weather and get the horrible weather Mt Washington is known for. And sometimes the opposite is true: people come to us actually wanting that foul weather experience and end up with sunshine and blue skies. In this case our guest specifically wanted to summit via the Lion Head Winter Route and she wanted some of that challenging weather but ended up with a bluebird day. That said, she did get to ant least experience some wind and she did get some pretty frigid temps. Leading the trip was Redline Guide Debra McCown. Debra penned the rest of this post and provided some photos.
Dirt is starting to show at Pinkham Notch, and the Lion Head Winter Route is getting thin, but it’s definitely still winter on the summit of Mt Washington. This guest had it on her list for a while to tackle Lion Head, and we got it done in thin and icy conditions, but then went to the summit on solid snow that had filled back in nicely with fresh storms after a recent thaw.
We opted for a late start, a little after 9am, in hopes of giving the weather some time to clear out, and it paid off: Everyone we passed on our way up had turned around due to weather conditions, but by the time we got above treeline, the wind was manageable, and the sun was shining. The summit sign (and everything else), in typical winter fashion, was decorated with rime ice, but we were lucky enough to get there under a bluebird sky.
With good weather and a fairly solid snowpack, we took a different than usual route: direct up the snowfield to the summit, an option the guest found a little spicy for the minimal time savings. We descended the usual route, following the cairns down to Split Rock and crossing the snowfield at a friendlier angle.
It was, all in all, a good day to be above treeline! Though, unless we get a lot more snow, the Lion Head Winter Route will soon be out for the season. —Debra
